Suspected U.S. drone strike kills Al Qaeda militants in Yemen

ADEN, Jan 31 (Reuters) - A suspected United States drone
strike on a car in Yemen killed several men believed to be al
Qaeda militants on Saturday, local residents said.

The strike occurred in the remote desert town of al-Saeed in
Shabwa province in southern Yemen. Residents told Reuters the
dead men were al Qaeda militants, but could not provide an exact
death toll.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is considered one
of the most powerful branches of the global militant group and
claimed responsibility for deadly shootings in Paris on Jan. 7.

For years the United States has cooperated with Yemeni
security forces to track and bomb AQAP members in the country's
rural badlands - a strategy which rights groups have criticised
for causing repeated civilian deaths.

But after Shi'ite Muslim rebels overran the capital Sanaa in
September and took over President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's
residence earlier this month, he and his cabinet resigned.

Hadi was a staunch defender of the drone programme, and his
exit has left the Islamist Houthi rebels, whose motto is "death
to America," the de facto rulers of the country.

U.S. officials told Reuters last week that the Houthi
takeover was depriving them of sufficient intelligence to locate
AQAP targets and also avoid killing innocents in the attacks.

Another drone strike on Monday, the first since Hadi's
resignation, killed two suspected AQAP militants and a sixth
grader.

Nineteen U.S. drone strikes killed 124 militants and four
civilians in Yemen in 2014, according to the New America
Foundation, which maintains a database of drone operations.